You Only Live Once
by bravevulnerability
Summary: "This date night is everything I dreamed it would be." How Castle and Beckett's date night continues. Post-ep for 8x20, 'Much Ado About Murder'.
The clacking of his laptop resounds through the otherwise quiet loft, keeps her company while she finishes her meal alone, boxes Castle's up to place in the fridge. The gnaw of guilt in forgetting to plan their date night has subsided, but so has the joy of being allowed a quiet night in with her husband. She's happy for him, of course, thrilled by the flare of excitement in his eyes when he had opened the package, received those script notes, all the materials necessary to write another man's story, and rushed to his computer to get started.

A part of her, though, had selfishly wanted him all to herself tonight, wanted his eyes flaring bright for her and her alone.

Beckett rises from the living room floor, their cartons of Chinese in her grasp, and strides into the kitchen with the beginnings of a plan forming in the back of her mind, a restored sense of determination blooming through her veins. She doesn't want to take him away from his newfound project, hates to distract him while he's inspired, but she could give him a choice on how he decides to spend the rest of the night, inspire him in other ways.

With their leftovers packaged away safely in the refrigerator, Kate strolls back through the living room, into his office, but bypasses her husband, still typing away at his laptop.

Castle tears his eyes away from the screen just long enough to spare a glimpse at her, halfheartedly calls her name, but she's already in their bedroom, trotting into the closet. He wants an exciting date night, she'll give him one. But she has to lure him away from the laptop first and over the years, he's proven that when he's engrossed in a story, that isn't always an easy feat. Even for her.

Lingerie always helped aid her, though, and she had been hoping for an excuse to wear a few of the new pieces she had purchased during their recent time apart.

She still wants peaceful, a tranquil night in with her husband, craves the slow burn of arousal she had intended to evoke before the evening came to an end, but first, the spark has to be ignited.

* * *

Kate adjusts the knot in front of her robe, the silk caressing her fingertips as she straightens the fabric. The kimono style piece had become an immediate favorite of hers, a gift he had surprised her with months ago, "just because", and she savors the delight that brightens his eyes each time she wears the robe almost as much as she relishes in the silk on her skin.

She saunters back into the office, drifts towards his chair, and slides her hand along his nape, twines her fingers through the fine hairs at the base of his skull. He's still too enraptured by the words filling the document on his screen to notice her, but he does tilt into her touch, attempts to give her a fraction of his attention regardless.

"Castle," she murmurs, scratching gently at his scalp, and his eyebrows arch in response, but his fingers continue to fly across the keyboard.

Beckett leans in and presses her lips to the still warm skin of Castle's temple, the injury minor, the coloring of the bruise too light to be seen now, but the flesh still tender. A hum of appreciation travels through his frame, one of his hands detaching from the keys to ascend to her face. Castle's fingers graze her jawline, following the harsh bone to slip his digits to her nape, caress the sensitive skin behind her ear with his thumb.

"Rick," she mumbles, touching her lips to his eyebrow as it lifts again at her call. "How long did you intend to write tonight?"

The fingers still moving across the keyboard stutter, stumbling over a few letters, and she can already sense his concentration wavering.

"Not - not long," he manages, the focus in his eyes fading. "I was just jotting down general ideas. I'd like to have this all done as soon as possible, you know, so I can avoid having a drug lord take a hit out on me."

"Mm, don't want that," she sighs, her lashes fluttering at his skin while she blinks to dispel the image of it, the returning flush of fear that had doused her insides like ice water less than 24 hours ago. "Please stop getting yourself kidnapped."

He huffs, amusement twitching at the corners of his mouth, but his fingers squeeze at her nape in reassurance, comforting. Because while they both know that he emerged unscathed this time, that the threat on his life was far less severe than what it has been in the past, for a few terrible hours, she had feared that she could lose him again.

"I will do my best to refrain from being kidnapped again."

Beckett presses her approval to the swollen flesh of his temple once more and inhales a calming breath of his aftershave, forces the dizzying sensation of paranoia and dread to dissipate, and returns to the task at hand.

"So does this mean you'd have the time to finish up date night with me?" Kate asks, brushing the tip of her nose to the bone of his cheek, nuzzling the side of his face until he's shifting in the chair.

"You had plans past dinner?" he replies, his voice an octave higher, and her lips spread into a smile against his skin.

Kate curls her fingers around his forearm, traveling past his wrist to cover the hand at her jaw, guiding him down to the curve of her shoulder, the satin material that immediately snags his attention.

"I always have _after_ dinner plans for us."

"You changed," he gasps, his chair bumping her thighs as he swivels, his eyes riveted to cling of silk, and Kate uses this new angle to her advantage, fits one of her knees between his. "Aww, but I had really hoped to peel the sweater off of you."

"You're seriously disappointed that I took my clothes off?"

"Don't be silly. I am only mildly disappointed that it was not _I_ who took them off," he informs her with a growing smirk, the warmth of his palms searing through the fabric of her kimono as they glide down her sides.

Kate rolls her eyes, but leans into the draw of his hands at her waist, balancing hers at his shoulders, toying with the edges of his plaid button down.

"Still want to write?"

Castle's eyes ripple, cerulean shifting to a deep blue that has goosebumps racing along her skin, and reaches behind her for his laptop, taps the button to save his work, and closes the lid. "I think now would be a good time for a break actually. Sorry for putting our date night on hold."

Beckett shifts backwards, eases onto the edge of the desk and chuckles as Castle spins his chair to face her, his fingers spreading like wings atop her thighs.

"Sorry for forgetting date night to begin with," she replies, twining her legs at his back when he eases the chair in closer, coaxes her knees apart with a single touch.

"Not as big of a deal as I made it out to be," he assures her and it's silly, but relief flutters through her chest. The friendly competition of arranging spectacular dates had been fun, and while she wouldn't mind keeping weekly nights devoted to their relationship intact, she hoped to do so with a little less pressure involved. "Don't look so pleased, Beckett."

She pierces her bottom lip to subdue her laughter, but Castle is grinning at her, amusement shimmering in his gaze as he teases the knotted tie in the middle of her waist. The ribbon of fabric is unraveling within seconds, but before he can part the kimono, his phone buzzes loudly atop his desk, rattling across the hardwood.

"Castle, I swear-"

"I'll silence it," he promises with a chuckle, reaching past her for the phone, his eyes darting to the screen alight with a text message, the midnight spill of arousal in his eyes momentary illuminated by the glow of the phone and a tender glimmer. "Oh… wait, Kate, look."

Castle offers her the phone and the burn through her blood simmers at the sight of Sarah Grace Ryan, dressed in a sunflower costume and clinging to her father's neck with a brilliant smile on her face.

"She's so adorable," she murmurs, cradling the phone in both of her hands, smiling down at the man who is like a brother to her, looking so unspeakably happy as he holds his little girl with so much pride.

"And most definitely a daddy's girl," Castle chimes in, accepting the phone back from her and typing out a quick response of gratitude to Esposito for sharing the picture.

"Alexis was always like that, wasn't she?" Kate inquires, tilting her head to the phone that he puts to rest with a hold of his thumb and a swipe of his finger to the screen, powering the device off.

"Yeah, but she didn't really have a choice either," he shrugs, returning his hands to her waist, but in no hurry to undress her, lifting his eyes to her with inquiry instead. "I mean, me over Meredith? No competition there."

A laugh bubbles at her lips and Kate touches her fingers to his chin, dips the nail of her index to the faded indention of a scar he gained when he was fifteen.

"You think it'd be the same if we had a daughter?" she questions, her voice light, but she trains her eyes on the trail of her fingers along the underside of his jaw. "Another daddy's girl?"

Castle catches her hand, though, encases her fingers within the cage of his. "Oh, Kate, if we had a kid? Girl or boy, I can't imagine them not being in awe of you."

Her eyes flicker to meet his, a breath stealing mixture of pride and adoration swirling through the sea of his gaze, drowning her.

Since the birth of the Ryans' second child only a few short weeks ago, the tentative discussion of kids had arisen a handful of times between them, potential hopes and complications, the blooming desire for a family like a tiny ember in the pit of her stomach that grows a little more each time they broach the topic.

Her happily ever after started and ended with the man staring up at her, the man who not only owned her heart, but _was_ her heart. Rick Castle was all she could need, but starting a family with him, having a child of their own… she wanted it. She wanted everything with him.

"Castle," she breathes, gliding her other hand to his jaw, the stubble along his cheeks tickling her palms when they cradle his face. Rick clutches the bones of her hips through the thin fabric, uses the brute strength of his arms to haul her from the edge of the desk, forward and into his lap where she settles with a contented sigh. "After LokSat, I want… I want Paris, and - treasure hunting in Nepal, the hot air balloon across the Sahara-"

"You remembered all of that?" he whispers, his eyes wide with surprise, his lips spreading into a pleasant grin.

The waves of her hair curtain around them when she tilts forward, resting her forehead to his, finding the peace she had sought. "Yeah, Castle, I remember and I want to do all of that with you. I want so many adventures for us."

"Me too," he gets out, his hands clenching restlessly at her waist, excitement buzzing in his palms. "But – but what about being captain? I could spend the rest of my life roaming with you, Beckett, but your work-"

"I'll figure it out. We'll figure something out. I love my job, but I want more."

His chest expands with a quick breath beneath hers. Since her job as captain of the Twelfth precinct began, it's been a whirlwind, a nightmare at times due to the conspiracy of LokSat that has plagued her from the very first day, and she craves a break, time away from the madness with him at her side, a hiatus.

"Okay, well, we're closing in on LokSat," he murmurs, his thumbs tracing circles over the hollows of her hips. "If we're able to end it, put it to bed-"

"We will," she cuts in with conviction, coiling her fingers at his ears.

"Then we pick a place this summer, arrange a way to make it work with the precinct, and we take a vacation."

"It's a start." Kate nods. "Traveling the world isn't the only kind of adventure I want, though."

"Oh?" His brow quirks against hers, wiggling to make her laugh, and she strokes her thumb at the hinge of his jaw, shakes her head.

He's waiting on her, patient and eager, but the words are caught in her throat, stuck in the middle of her larynx and threatening to choke her up. So Kate drops one of her hands from his face, locates his at her waist, and draws their tangled fingers to her flat stomach. She finds her words just as he loses his.

"I want _everything_ with you," she confesses into the breath of space between them. "And I don't want to wait much longer."

Her thighs slip down the cage of his ribs, clamping around his waist when he stands from the chair with her in his arms, her own hooking around his neck and holding on through the surge of his mouth against hers.

"Castle," she gasps, but he's smiling, so wide and full that his teeth clash with hers when she catches his joy.

Her robe has parted, the silk fluttering around their thighs as he walks them to the bedroom, the lace of the lingerie beneath sealed against his chest, but her husband is too busy beaming up at her too notice.

"Yes, yes to all of it," he mumbles, staining his lips beneath her jaw, touching his tongue to the quickening beat of her pulse, and humming at the instinctive rock of her hips. "Everything you said."

His mouth travels back to hers, painting her smile with his lips, and lifting his gaze when her forehead crashes with his once more. She doesn't think she's ever seen his eyes so bright, so intensely blue-

"I really love you, Beckett."

Breathless amusement ruffles his hair before she can bury her face in his neck, murmur the words back to him as his knees hit the edge of the bed. Kate tugs him down on top of her, revels in his gasp of surprise as he finally takes in her full change in attire.

"Love you too, Castle," she hums, tunneling her fingers through his hair, her eyes fluttering shut as his hands skate along the lattice of her expanding ribs.

"Best date night ever."


End file.
